NEW YORK (AP) — Animal Planet has a menagerie of new shows for the season ahead that promise real-life drama, monstrous mystery, unusual human creatures and a new breed of cute.
Also look for the network’s first competition show, with the provocative title “Top Hookers.” (Relax. It deals with fishing.)
The slate of new programming, most of which will launch next year, is scheduled for unveiling to advertisers Thursday in New York at the upfront presentation of parent company Discovery Communications.
The lineup builds on Animal Planet’s brand strategy of “Surprisingly Human,” said Marjorie Kaplan, the channel’s president and general manager.

On Dec. 15, 2011, honoring the 70th anniversary of the fall of Bataan (April 2012) and the subsequent death march, Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) proposed legislation to grant the Congressional Gold Medal to the troops who defended Bataan during World War II.
The next day, Congressman Martin Heinrich (D-NM) proposed similar legislation in the House of Representatives — H.R. 3712.
One inspiration for this action was the documentary, “Tragedy of Bataan.” As an adjunct to “Tragedy of Bataan.” New Mexico PBS has produced a half-hour program with some of the survivors of the surrender of Bataan.

Pregnant women get asked many questions as they await their babies: When are you due? Is it a boy or a girl? Have you picked out a name? Have you written a birth plan?
Or even, sometimes: Who’s the father?
In “The Snapper,” sort of a 1993 Irish precursor to the 2007 American mega hit “Knocked Up” — in that both comedies star a fetus that does not result from sacred marital love, but rather from booze — 20-year-old Sharon Curley (Tina Kellegher) does not want to answer that last question.

A flying carrot, a dinocyborg and a silicon-based gernanium eater are just a few characters Los Alamos audiences will be able to spend time with.
“Petra and the Jay,” a musical play with a science fiction setting, will be performed at 7 p.m. April 13 and 2 p.m. April 14 at Crossroads Bible Church. The production is a benefit for Pajarito Environmental Education Center’s Earth Day events.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Cameron will be one of the stars of his next big-screen adventure, a chronicle of the expedition on which he has made record-setting ocean dives.
Cameron said he plans a TV special for National Geographic and a 3-D theatrical release on the Deepsea Challenger missions, which included his seven-mile descent to the ocean’s deepest point in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific. It was the deepest solo dive ever, surpassing the five-mile descent he made a few weeks earlier.